Parade Mishaps
by Yamiyo.Darknight
Summary: England reluctantly agrees to spend Thanksgiving with America this year, and there ends up being a few misunderstandings...Fluff ensues. WARNING: MAJOR FLUFF, No smut. USUK


**Heya! I am and I wrote this with Dogsrule! Thank you for taking the time to read our story and please enjoy it as you read it! We actually started this on Thanksgiving, but it ended up being typed through today, so here it is. It was fun to write and I think it came out pretty good.****Just as a warning: THERE IS MAJOR FLUFF. Sorry no smut, since I'm not very good at writing it. owo; Just fluff.**

**Dogsrule here! And we're working together on another fanfic! But this time it's USUK! I'm America (The HERO! XD) and ****'s**** Iggy! Oh…and the Sesame Street float and the ice skating ones in this…yeah…those were my two favorite ones…so that's why I used them in here... ^_^; (: That explains a lot. XD)**

**And remember that COMMENTS AND CRITIQUES MAKE THE WORLD GO ROUND FOR US WRITERS! (No flames though please. They just burn the world and make people very very sad. Or angry.)**

"DUDE! This is so freaking AWESOME!" The overly cheerful American cried right when he woke up. Finally it was Thanksgiving! The next fun thing right after Halloween and before Christmas! Well…actually it was the only thing in between but Alfred chose to ignore that. He had already spent a good part of the day before getting everything ready and already invited Arthur over (and made sure that Arthur didn't help in the kitchen…he still shuddered remembering what happened the year before). "OH! That's right! I gotta wake up Iggy!" Then he ran down the hallway to the guest bedroom he was letting Arthur share. "YO IGGY! Wake up! Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade's gonna be on so come watch it with me!" He cried as he pounded against the door.

Arthur woke up with a start, feeling extremely irritated. He'd been hoping to get a good sleep since Alfred had decided to keep him up for what he called "Thanksgiving Eve", no matter how much Arthur complained about it and told him that no such thing existed. The bloody fool never listened to him. What had gone wrong in raising him?

He stood up and stalked to the door, wrenching it open, making sure to give the overjoyed blond in front of him a dark glare (although he had a feeling that it would do nothing to help him get his message across). "Alfred…do you really having to beat the door down to wake me up? You can't think of any better way to wake me up? It's rude and bloody annoying." He snapped, crossing his arms over his chest. "And another thing, my name is Arthur, not Iggy. I keep telling you not to call me that ridiculous name!" He shoved the blond American aside and stalked down the hall to make himself some tea. He disliked the coffee that Alfred always wanted him to drink. Why couldn't he see that tea was so much better? "And what the bloody hell is the 'Macy's Thanksgiving Parade' anyways? Is that another one of your stupid overdone celebrations?"

Alfred pouted, "AWW! Come on Iggy! How else am I supposed to wake you up? When I used that super soaker the last time you almost ripped my head off and tried to curse me with your hocus pocus stuff!" Bouncing behind Arthur on the way to the kitchen Alfred perked up with a sheepish smile, "Oh yeah…I don't have any over your tea cuz Tony used it for something he didn't wanna tell me about." Then he noticed Arthur's glare, "I-It's not my fault! I tried to buy more of that stuff for you but the store didn't have it! Can't you just have coffee for once?" But when Arthur asked about the parade Alfred jumped back with a scandalized look on his face. "WHAT? YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT MACY'S THANKSGIVING DAY PARADE IS? WHAT THE HECK IS **WRONG **WITH YOU DUDE? And it's NOT a 'stupid overdone celebration'! It's a awesome parade to start the Christmas season!"

Arthur began to feel more and more infuriated as Alfred kept speaking. He couldn't even have his tea after all this happened? Ohhhhh. This was _**not**_ going to be a good day.

"First of all, your manner of speaking is atrocious!" Arthur snapped, prodding Alfred in the chest with a slim finger. "You butcher the English language with your damned excuse for words! It's not 'wanna'! That's not a proper word! It's 'want to'! I'm not a 'dude'! I'm a gentleman and my name is ARTHUR! Not dude and NOT IGGY!" His face began to turn more and more red as he continued to rant. "Your speaking is horrible! Not to mention you're supposed to say 'an awesome' not 'a awesome'!"

The disgruntled blond huffed and narrowed his eyes at Alfred, not done with his angry outburst. "Quite frankly, I don't care about American parades! They're pointless celebrations that aren't needed! In America, you all will take any day and anything to try and turn it into an excuse for a party or celebration of some sort! It's incredibly stupid!"

"Says the guy who uses any excuse to get dead drunk…" Alfred muttered under his breath. "But the Thanksgiving Parade IS awesome! And you're gonna watch it and agree with me when it's over!" Then he proceeded to drag Arthur into the living room while rambling about the parade. "You'll see Iggy! They get all sorts of high schools band from all over the country who come and play at it! There's a whole bunch of stars and singers who come too! And there's a bunch of awesome floats! OH! And you can't forget the balloons! They're a staple of the whole parade! There are new ones now since we had to use them for rubber during WWII. And then at the end of the parade they have Santa Claus come in his sleigh!" Then he dropped Arthur on the couch and picked up the remote. "Don't worry Iggy! You'll love it!" Alfred chirped with a smile as he turned on the TV and set in on the channel showing the parade. "SEE! It's starting now!"

Arthur didn't say anything more as he was almost completely disregarded, although he had wanted to say something about the drunk remark. He huffed irritatedly as he was dumped on the couch in a careless manner and then scooted away to the farthest end of the couch as he could from Alfred, lest he try to get too close for personal comfort like he usually did. "Really, is this necessary? We could be doing something much more important right now!" Arthur continued to protest, frowning when the television began to show images of the large crowd that awaited the coming event. "I could be reading right now," he muttered darkly, hugging a pillow to his chest, sulking.

"Aww! Don't be like that Iggy! You'll like it! I'm sure of it! Just as how I'm sure that I'm the hero!" Alfred exclaimed and not noticed the eye roll Arthur gave him when he said 'hero'. "It's a really big thing here and it's been going on since 1924 so everybody here knows about it! And I showed it to Mattie one year too!" then he jumped up and cheered when they announced the start of the parade. "Yay! See Iggy! It's starting! And there's the first float!"

"Would you PLEASE stop calling me Iggy? I've been telling you constantly that that's not my name! Get it through your thick skull!" Arthur snapped. "It's no wonder that your brother is constantly avoiding you on holidays!" He squeezed the pillow closer to himself; it covered most of his face, except for his emerald eyes which still showed his irritation.

"Why? Iggy's an awesome nickname! At least I don't call you a 'bloody brainless git' like you do to me all the time." Alfred said with a bright smile. "And it's not my fault that Mattie picked to have thanksgiving in another month just because of that ONE incident! At least it wasn't France who was here!" Then he calmed down a little and said, "Come on, all I'm asking for is for you to _watch_ this with me. So can't you just humor me for a little while? Is that really too much to ask for?"

Arthur started to retort America's response about the nickname and shuddered at the thought of France. There was no way in hell that Arthur would ever, EVER let the longer-haired man in his house. Especially on a holiday where he would try to make any of his targets drunk…which would lead to other problems. He coughed at the thought and shuddered again.

The blond paused at the change of tone in Alfred's voice and his face went red with embarrassment. With a look and sad voice like that, there was no way he could tell the American no. The sky blue eyes always made Arthur weak and unsure. "I-I…fine. But only because it's you," Arthur muttered quietly, hugging the pillow so that it completely covered his face so that Alfred couldn't see his blush.

"Thanks Iggy!" Alfred replied, but he was feeling confused about why Arthur was covering his face…and he could have sworn that Arthur was blushing…Deciding to not say anything (mainly because Arthur would start ranting again) Alfred turned back to the TV screen. "Oh, AWESOME! Look Iggy! It's Sesame Street!" Alfred cried and pointed at the TV.

"You Americans and your parades…You have one for every subject don't you?" Arthur commented dryly, eyeing the colourful parade float with distaste. It was a wonder that every American wasn't blind with the constant flashing of bright and insane colours. "How can you stand to look at those annoyingly vivid colours? Don't those hurt your eyes at all? It's ridiculous."

"Don't be such a kill-joy Iggy..." Alfred mumbled. "And I thought that you have Sesame Street at your place too." Why did Arthur have to be such a stick in the mud all the time? From what he heard from other nations Arthur used to be a pretty wild guy but all Alfred had seen is the man sitting with him on the couch. Shrugging to himself Alfred continued watching. "Well I'm sure that you'll find one you like. See! There's a calmer one!" The float he was talking about was one that was supposed to be a frozen over pond with a couple of people in Victorian clothes skating across it. "Well? How's that one?" Alfred ask as he looked back at Arthur.

Arthur raised an eyebrow at the first comment. "Yes, but we don't turn it into a float." He looked at the one that was pointed out to him and almost smiled. Yes, that one was much better suited to his taste. Of course, he wouldn't admit that openly to Alfred. "It-it's okay." He stammered quickly, looking away from Alfred, knowing that the blue-eyed blond would let it go to his head if he said he liked it. "It's not as tacky, I suppose." His hands gripped the pillow again.

"Yay! A better response!" Alfred cheered and gave Arthur a quick hug. "Now we're getting' somewhere! I'm gonna make it my mission as the hero to find a float, band, or balloon that Iggy loves!" Alfred cried as he stood up and gave a heroic pose. Then he plopped back down on the couch. "And now we continue with the parade!"

Arthur blushed and gave a shocked look at Alfred. The hug had surprised him and he couldn't quite- wait. Why was his heart beating so quickly? He shook his head and hid his face in the pillow again, muttering. "Wh-what? Why would you do that? Besides, it doesn't matter if I like a float or not, right?"

"U-Uh…well…." Alfred started, strangely flustered. "You seemed pissed off about watching it so I was hoping you could find something fun with it…And it's fun for to watch this with you…After all, isn't Thanksgiving supposed to be a day to give thanks?" Alfred asked with a slightly shy smile. "And I'm thankful that you're here with me."

Arthur looked at Alfred, face now completely red and the colour of a tomato. "Wh-what?" He looked away and then looked back at Alfred with a shy smile. "Well, I-I'm thankful that I'm here with you too… I don't mind watching this with you…" He paused and then shut his mouth, nearly crushing the pillow in his arms with embarrassment.

"Huh….? You don't? But you always rag on me all the time so I'd thought you'd hate doing this…" Alfred asked, completely shocked. _What's up with him? He's acting really weird…_ Alfred thought as he turned back to the screen and saw Arthur remove the pillow from his face. "Hey Iggy…why's your face all red? You're not sick or something are you?" Alfred asked as he looked back at Arthur. Feeling worried that Arthur had a fever Alfred reached over and put him hand against Arthur's forehead. "No…you don't feel like you have a fever…"

Arthur froze in place and his face went another 10 shades of red when Alfred's hand was on his forehead. In one quick movement, he had smacked Alfred's hand away and shoved the pillow into the American's unsuspecting face while quickly running out of the room, and back into the guest room that he had been staying in. He slammed the door shut and locked it, huffing and trying to calm himself down. Then it finally dawned on him on what he'd done. He sank to the floor and cupped his face with his hands and sighed. There was no way in hell he could face Alfred now.

"GAH!" Alfred cried out when the pillow hit his face. "What the heck did I do….?" Alfred asked himself out loud as he looked back in the direction of the guest bedroom. "He really IS acting weird today…" Alfred sighed as he stood up and walked to the room. He spent the next couple of seconds in a silent debate with himself about if he should do something or not, but then he shrugged and knocked against the door, "Uh…Iggy? You feelin' okay? We can skip the parade and meal if you're not feeling too hot right now."

"'m fine…" was the muffled reply. "I'm just…never mind…" The door opened very slightly, and a red-faced Arthur peeked out the door. He didn't say anything and just stared at the floor anxiously. "Sorry." He still wanted to hide in his room and hide under the sheets in his bed. It was embarrassing how he'd acted and he still wasn't quite sure why he had acted the way he did.

"YAAY! You're not passed out or suffering from major blood loss or something!" Alfred cheered. But when Arthur apologized Alfred just shook it off. "And it's okay dude. At least you're fine right?" _Well…he seems a little better…. _Alfred thought as he watch Arthur stare at the floor and refuse to meet his eyes. "So…." Alfred started, trying to break the awkward silence. "You wanna go back and watch the rest of the parade of do ya wanna stay here and sleep?"

"Huh?" Arthur looked up and frowned. "I don't mind watching more…" He muttered, feeling a little frustrated. He walked back with Alfred to the living room and sat back on the couch, grabbing the pillow and hugging it back to his chest. He looked at the screen although he wasn't quite paying attention to the program. Alfred didn't seem to be getting the hint that he wasn't feeling too happy.

"Great! Just sit back, relax, and enjoy the show Iggy!" Alfred chirped. "Then we can pig out on turkey, pie, and all that other good stuff!" Then he leaned back against the back of the couch. _Is he feeling okay? He sure doesn't look it…._ Alfred thought. _Maybe this is why everybody keeps telling me to read the atmosphere…._ "You sure you're okay Iggy? You don't look like it…" Alfred tentatively asked feeling very unsure of how Arthur would respond.

Arthur didn't respond to the first couple of comments, but when Alfred asked him about how he was feeling he felt something snap. He'd thought that he'd spent enough time together with Alfred for the American to know how he was. He knew how Alfred was. He knew when he was upset, when he was happy, or angry, even if he hid it behind his dopey smiles. Why couldn't he do the same for Arthur?

"Gee, is something wrong? _**'Is something WRONG?'**_" Arthur snapped. "Why can't you ever tell what mood I'm in? I always know how you're feeling! But you don't seem to ever know me!" He paused, taking a deep breath to calm down. He noticed that the blond had a lost look on his face and became even more enraged. He slapped Alfred across the face shouting, "You don't even care about how I feel, do you? Even though you should **know** that I **love** you, you don't seem to even **realize** it you damned bloody **git**!" He stormed out of the room and out of the American's house, not even knowing where the hell he was going.

When Arthur stormed out Alfred just stood staring at the door rubbing the side of his face, he still wasn't able to say anything thanks to the shock that Arthur gave him. "H-He loves me…?" Alfred asked out loud to himself as he looked down to the floor. "But I thought that he…." Quickly shaking his head Alfred ran out the door to search for the missing Englishman.

_Where would he go….?_ Alfred thought as he looked all around the neighborhood. Then a light bulb went off in his head when he remembered a nearby park. Sure enough when Alfred got there he found Arthur crying on one of the benches next to the duck pond. Slowly walking up Alfred set a hand on Arthur's shoulder and said, "Arthur…?" When the emerald eyes turned up to look at him Alfred continued, "I….I'm sorry about before…." Then he took his hand off and looked at the ground. "…but I DO care about you….I-I always have…even when we had to fight each other…..you just always thought of me as a child so I didn't want to take away that image and memory from you, especially since it seems like you liked me better when you were raising me….I thought it would be the least I could do after everything…." Then he looked back up and looked Arthur right in his eyes, "But….I love you too Arthur…I have for a while…I just thought that you hated me."

"You thought I hated you?" Arthur asked, feeling rather stupefied by the confession. He'd thought that after what he'd done that Alfred would never want to look at him again. But here he was. He'd **chased after him** and even knew where to find him. "I've never hated you! I mean, sure, we've gotten into some bad fights and such, and I get irritated with you when you act like a bloody git, but I've never once hated you…" He sighed and rubbed his reddened eyes gruffly with a sniffle. "If I had, do you think I would put up with your incessant idiocy?" He teased lightly, smiling at Alfred.

He sighed and urged Alfred to sit next to him. When the blond did so, Arthur took Alfred's hands into his own and said, "I was feeling frustrated because I had these conflicting feelings for you. And when I felt upset you never seemed to really notice." He paused and looked down, flushing a bit with shame. "I thought you didn't care."

"Guess you wouldn't put up with it huh?" Alfred asked, embarrassed. But when Arthur took his hands and looked down Alfred gently removed one of his hands from Arthur's grasp and lifted Arthur's chin up so he could look him in the face. "Of course I care Arthur. You're the most important person in the world to me. No one else can replace Arthur Kirkland in my eyes." He said with a bright smile, then he took his hand off Arthur's chin. "That'll make you the 'bloody git' if you keep believe something stupid like that."

Arthur flushed with the contact made and then with embarrassment. "I'm not the bloddy git here! You are!" He retorted with false anger, giving Alfred a light shove on the chest. "You are an insufferable idiot who eats the weirdest food and doesn't have any clue on how to read the atmosphere…" He smiled and started chuckling. "But that's why I love you also, you idiot." He stood up and held his hand out to Alfred. "Now can we go back to your place? It's cold out here and I'd like to get warm again."

"Aww! You're so mean Iggy!" Alfred whined with a fake pout. "And you have a whole bunch of weirder foods than me!" But then he smiled when Arthur held out his hand and helped him up. "Yeah! Let's head back! I think that Miracle on 34th Street is on next! Don't wanna miss that either!" Then he put his arm around Arthur and said, "But I think I wouldn't mind missing it since you're here. I don't think I'll ask Santa for a single thing this year since I already got what I want." Then he let go of Arthur and jumped in front of him. "Come on Iggy! Race ya home!" Then he started to take off running down the sidewalk laughing the whole time.

Ignoring the nickname and the insult to his food, Arthur smiled and decided that he'd run after Alfred. He wouldn't admit it openly but he'd be happy with Alfred as well and didn't think he needed anything or anybody else to make him any happier.

**Please take the time to comment/review/critique! It makes us both very happy and keeps us writing!**

**Shameless plug: For those of you who don't know, we are also working on another story together! It is called Diavolo Angelico and it's currently 5 chapters and running! Chapter 6 will be out soon! (Link for those of you who are too lazy to look it up, remove the spaces: http: / www. fanfiction. net/s/7514992/1/Diavolo_Angelico)**


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